The Grind Factor Detroit at New Orleans

Where do I start? How about we start with Drew Brees morphing into Case Keenum right before our eyes? That’s right, Drew Brees laid a Bryce Petty size dump on the Superdome floor for all to see and it wasn’t pretty.

Drew Brees pulled out a crystal ball and provided the Who Dat Nation a glimpse of the future after he retires and the Saints draft the next Billy Joe Grayson. That nightmare is very real – the odds of uncovering Derek Carr or Russel Wilson type gems are extremely long so be prepared for the factory of sadness.

But that’s a discussion for another day in the not too distant future.

Drew Brees will bounce back, his track record has proven he will but in the biggest game so far this year the timing could not be worse.

This debacle last Sunday was a complete team meltdown, from Sean Payton all the way down to the ball boys. There was no energy or urgency with this team from the time they stepped foot on that field until the time they stepped off. With so much at stake this is completely unacceptable.

Walking into the dome even the rain couldn’t dampen my enthusiasm for this game, after all here we are in December and the Saints had a legit game that meant something and what do they do? they played like they could care less. When Delvin Breaux was pressed about what went wrong he stated what everybody knew – they were flat and played with no energy. But it was what Breaux said at the end of his interview that caught my ear – he said the defense had made a big play and when he was trying to celebrate with a teammate, the player told him he was “tired” Really? with all the chips on the table they played “tired”

Kudos to Breaux for his honesty.

Usually when I do the grind factor I try to take a play here and there that helped turn the game one way or the other. I can’t think of one because the Saints weren’t in it from the opening whistle. Sure on the scoreboard it seemed like they was in it but in reality they were not.

So this week I’m going to do the grind factor a little different and just use some screen shots on how ridiculous this game really was.

Here’s a random play were Brees tries to get the ball to Josh Hill with two defenders all over him – thankfully the ball was batted down or it might have been another interception.

Here’s another one that should have been intercepted with Brees trying to force the deep ball to Brandin Cooks with Michael Thomas wide open underneath.

Hey look Here’s BW Webb looking into the backfield as Golden Tate races past him on his way to a 66 yard touchdown. I don’t know what Webb was thinking here, did he think he had safety help? hard to say but what I do know was the lack of effort by Webb when Tate caught the ball – he literally gave up and it was obvious.

That’s enough of that, I think we get the picture.

For all intents and purposes the Saints are done – stick a fork in them. They had their chances this year and every single time they found a way to blow it. So what now? For me it’s to enjoy these last four games because before you know it the endless barrage of meaningless mock drafts will find their unwanted way into my daily web surfing….I shudder at the thought.

So I’m going to enjoy my gamedays as I normally do – cheering for the Saints and cursing the refs. Before we know it the off-season will be here and I will be counting the days until training camp begins.

I’m going to soak these last few games up and enjoy every last bit of them without thinking of what could have been – That’s the only thing I can do.